The 100 Best Places to Drink and Do in Phoenix

A metal beaded curtain on the fourth floor of a downtown Marriott is not where you expect to find one of the country's better cocktail bars, and yet here we are. The menu arrives illustrated like a small field guide, one drawing per drink. The cocktails run from riffed classics to things you won't find elsewhere, with bar snacks serious enough to anchor a full evening. It won the Spirited Award for Best U.S. Hotel Bar in 2025, and a James Beard semifinalist nod followed.

1. Spirited Awards 2025 · Winner · Best U.S. Hotel Bar
2. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
3. Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 4 Finalist · Best U.S. Hotel Bar

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star

Cocktail menus organized light to full-bodied are a small kindness this bar extends before you've even ordered. Highball is a dimly lit cocktail bar on the second floor of a historic building in downtown Phoenix, doing the speakeasy thing with genuine commitment. Housemade ingredients show up throughout a lengthy menu where the flavor combinations tend toward the unexpected. A James Beard Outstanding Bar semifinalist, and a first-date spot that actually earns the designation.

1. Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 4 Finalist · U.S. Bartender of the Year · Libby Lingua
2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar
3. Imbibe Where to Drink in Phoenix

A red mirrored hallway leads you down into this speakeasy-style cocktail lounge beneath a north Scottsdale restaurant, which is exactly the kind of entrance that makes people feel they've earned their drink. Inside, gold ceilings, red velvet drapes, and live music set a mood that commits fully to the bit. The cocktails lean sweet-and-savory strange, and small bites keep the evening going. Phoenix New Times named it Best Bar in 2025.

1. Industry Excellence Awards Bar of the Year
2. Sunset Better Bars · Where to Eat and Drink
3. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner · Iconic Speakeasy Experience

The cabin is dressed in burnt orange and warm walnut, the windows show a looping blue-yonder reel, and a flight attendant is rolling the beverage cart your way. Carry On is an immersive cocktail lounge built around the first-class, Mad Men-era flight fantasy, preflight announcements and all. Reservations drop weekly and go fast, so plan accordingly. The Spirited Awards named it a Top 10 U.S. Nominee for Best New Cocktail Bar.

1. The 50 Best Bar Design Award
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best New Bar · Best of Phoenix
3. Imbibe Where to Drink in Phoenix

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Winner: Barter & Shake · Outstanding Hospitality Group
2. Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 4 Finalist · Best U.S. Bar Team
3. Foodist Awards 2023 · Winner · Most Creative Handcrafted Cocktail

The digital windows scroll through passing landscapes while you sit inside a wood-paneled Presidential Pullman car that never moves, which is either the concept or the joke, possibly both. Platform 18 is a reservation-only immersive cocktail bar built around Prohibition-era drinks and Roaring Twenties New York. The Pinnacle Guide awarded it 2 Pins. Book ahead; walk-ins go nowhere fast.

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Winner: Barter & Shake · Outstanding Hospitality Group
2. Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 4 Finalist · Best U.S. Bar Team
3. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Outstanding Bar/Nightlife Experience

The whole room is built to look like the cargo hold of a 19th-century ship, portholes and all, which sets the stakes early at this immersive tiki bar on Indian School. The cocktail menu runs from classics to the team's own riffs on the genre, leaning into the full theatrical bit without apologizing for it. Phoenix New Times named it the city's top tiki bar, and the Spirited Awards put the bar team among the top four in the U.S.

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Winner: Barter & Shake · Outstanding Hospitality Group
2. Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 4 Finalist · Best U.S. Bar Team
3. Foodist Awards 2023 · Winner · Most Creative Handcrafted Cocktail

The annual menu at this downtown Phoenix cocktail bar arrives as a lavishly illustrated tome, and the bar takes its ice quality as seriously as its recipes. Ross Simon's self-stated motto is "whimsical as fuck," which coexists happily alongside one of the coldest martinis in the city, served in red-leather booths under tall ceilings. A Spirited Awards Regional Top 10 Honoree, it draws a queue worth joining online before you arrive.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. Imbibe Where to Drink in Phoenix
3. Eater The Best Bars in Phoenix

A converted cottage on McDowell Road that smells faintly of old rugs and good intentions, Sauvage is a natural wine bar and bottle shop where the list leans toward obscure regions and the staff will talk you through all of it. Charcuterie and tinned fish are always on hand, and local chefs occasionally pop up to cook. Esquire named it one of the best bars in America, which the room, unhurried and candlelit, seems entirely unbothered by.

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America
2. Eater The Best Bars in Phoenix
3. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

Two bars for the price of one obsession: an energetic street-level cantina with patio and a reservation-only basement room for quieter, deeper agave rabbit-holing. A food truck parks outside when hunger arrives. The agave selection runs wide enough that the bartenders will happily guide you in, and the cocktails, like a mezcal-and-pistachio-milk situation, suggest this is not your average tequila shelf.

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner · Outstanding Bar/Nightlife Experience
2. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Most Creative Handcrafted Cocktail Program
3. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Agave-Based Cocktails · Best of Phoenix

1. Esquire The Desert Martini · The Best Martinis in America
2. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Most Creative Handcrafted Cocktail Program
3. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

A faded pink building off Seventh Avenue, formerly a tax office, which tracks: there's something a little bureaucratic about a jukebox this good. Inside, the bar is cheap, loose, and happy to stay that way, with Scrabble at the booths and beers that don't require a budget meeting. The patio shifts into DJ territory after dark, and the rotating calendar of themed nights keeps regulars checking Instagram like it's homework.

1. Imbibe Where to Drink in Phoenix
2. Eater The Best Bars in Phoenix
3. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

You reach it by taking the middle elevator in the Ten-0-One Building down to the basement, which sets the tone before the doors even open. Rough Rider is a cocktail bar with a full food menu, done up in dark wood and high ceilings, somewhere between a Victorian gentlemen's club and a downtown Phoenix speakeasy. The drinks lean into the era with names like Happy Birthday Mr. President, and the kitchen sends out a raw bar and a bone-in pork chop that suggest nobody phoned it in.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Underground Restaurant · Best of Phoenix
2. Imbibe Where to Drink in Phoenix
3. Eater The Best Bars in Phoenix

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner · Outstanding Bar/Nightlife Experience
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
3. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants In Scottsdale

Red lights, pool tables, a game room, and flatbreads until 2 a.m.: The Little Woody refuses to be just one kind of place, and Arcadia has loved it for years because of that. It's a dive bar with cocktail lounge bones, where dart nights blur into dancing and the Gun Shy Sour keeps the bourbon crowd happy. Weekend nights draw a younger crowd who treat the arcade games as warmly as the drinks.

1. Foodist Awards 2024 · Winner · Outstanding Bar/Nightlife Experience
2. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner: Genuine Concepts · Outstanding Hospitality Group
3. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist: Genuine Concepts · Outstanding Hospitality Group

Arizona-focused taproom on Indian School Road where the tap list reads like a field guide to the state's small producers: Superstition Meadery, Stoic Cider, Wren House, Arizona Wilderness, all alongside limited releases from further afield. The vibe is beer-geek friendly without being beer-geek insufferable, and the staff can actually explain what's on without making you feel like a tourist in your own city.

1. Eater The Best Bars in Phoenix
2. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

Shelves of wine bottles line every wall of this small, happily unpretentious wine bar tucked into a strip mall on Indian School. The vibe is couch-and-conversation, the kind of place where you sit down next to strangers and somehow end up closing it down with them. The food menu runs to pimento cheese and Moroccan spiced meatballs, which is a perfectly reasonable way to soak up a second pour. Phoenix New Times named it one of the top 100 bars in the city.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Bottle Shop · Best of Phoenix
2. Eater The Best Bars in Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Eater The Best Bars in Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

The walls at this dim Roosevelt Row cocktail lounge are lined with polaroids of patrons who've shed a little more than their inhibitions, all tasteful enough that you'd call it art if pressed. The drinks from the veteran team change often and lean experimental, which pairs nicely with the dark, slightly conspiratorial atmosphere. Named a Regional Top 10 Honoree at the Spirited Awards, it earns the recognition without trying too hard to.

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist · Top Mixologist/Bartender · Brenon Stuart
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Cocktails With a Side of Tasteful Nudity · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Winner · Top Arizona Brewery, Winery, or Distillery Experience
2. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist: American Pie · Favorite Local Craft Beer
3. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist: Mango Foxtrot · Favorite Local Craft Beer

Desert-toned walls and a condensed, always-shifting wine list set the mood at this neo-bistro and wine bar on Seventh Street. The team pulls from old and new world bottles for both pours and a rotating spritz selection, while small plates from the kitchen give you a reason to stay for another glass. A James Beard semifinalist for Best New Bar, it draws the kind of crowd that actually talks to the table next to them.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The Infatuation The 20 Best Restaurants In Phoenix
3. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner · Most Creative Handcrafted Cocktail Program
2. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Iconic Speakeasy Experience
3. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

A coffee shop where you can also get clay under your fingernails, PIP Coffee + Clay pairs a small cafe with a ceramics studio on North 24th Street. Wheel-throwing classes run about two hours, keep group sizes small, and require you to put your phone away, which turns out to be the whole point. Your mug may come out lopsided. That's fine. Grab a coffee or a beer while the creative juices do their thing.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Ceramics Studio · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Art Classes · Best of Phoenix
3. AZ Central Best Coronado coffee shops for more than just coffee · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Winner: Barter & Shake · Outstanding Hospitality Group
2. Eater The Best Bars in Phoenix
3. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

1. Eater The Best Bars in Phoenix
2. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

A neighborhood dive bar that fully commits to the bit: vintage furniture with backstories, a cigarette machine, free arcade games, and a jukebox that always has Marty Robbins on deck. The drinks are cold, the Old Style is colder, and the backyard patio with lawn games fills up with the kind of crowd that looks like they've been regulars for years, even if they just discovered it last week.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Outdoor Dance Party · Best of Phoenix
2. Eater The Best Bars in Phoenix

A chrome Dayton wire wheel serves as the flower pot, and the espresso machine has been custom-painted, and that sets the tone. Xolo is a coffee shop that doubles as a rotating gallery of Chicano and lowrider art, with tuck-and-roll chairs and vintage photography that looks lifted from an East L.A. album. The family next door runs a tattoo shop with the same soul. Pop-ups bring lowriders into the lot and zoot suits through the door.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Chicano Art Space · Best of Phoenix
2. AZ Central Best Midtown Phoenix coffee shop for working or studying · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes

Lines form before the doors open at this specialty seafood counter, which tells you most of what you need to know. Faroe Island salmon, live sea urchin, razor clams, and whatever else flew in that morning fill the case alongside premium tinned fish and prepared foods. The shop insists it isn't a restaurant, then sells poke banh mi and sashimi boxes to go. Wednesday's lobster roll has its own cult.

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist: Lobstah Roll · Standout Signature Dish
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Fish Shop · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Fish Market · Best of Phoenix

A coffee shop where the décor has opinions about where you sit. PHX Cat Cafe is a nonprofit cat lounge in downtown Phoenix where a rotating crew of adoptable cats nap in elevated perches, bat at toys, and occasionally judge you from across the room. The small admission fee buys you time among the felines, decent coffee, and access to events like cat yoga and drag bingo. Over a thousand cats have found homes through the place, which gives the whole thing a satisfying excuse.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Way to Cuddle Cats · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Cat Cafe · Best of Phoenix
3. AZ Central Best downtown Phoenix coffee shops for more than just coffee · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes

A 1982 Piaggio Apé truck imported from Italy parks in the garden and pulls espresso, which tells you most of what you need to know about Pueblo's priorities. This plant shop and coffee stop on Grand Avenue occupies a lush warehouse where indoor tropicals crowd every corner and a vintage gardening library invites you to stay longer than planned. The pottery, succulents, and houseplants are the main event, but the outdoor patio has a way of making an errand feel like an afternoon.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Plant Shop · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Plant Shop · Best of Phoenix
3. AZ Central Best Grand Avenue coffee shops for more than just coffee · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Outstanding Bar/Nightlife Experience

1. Foodist Awards 2024 · Winner: Vegan Bahn Mi · Best Vegan Delight
2. Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist: Refuge IPA · Favorite Local Craft Beer
3. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

Frosted mugs pulled straight from a freezer behind a bar draped in kitschy tchotchkes: this Grand Avenue tiki dive bar has been an institution since truckers were rolling through on Route 60. Wood paneling, tiki-style tables, a pool table, and a patio where the smoking happens. On Tuesdays a DJ spins vinyl, playing what the regulars call "funky mutant dance music," and somehow the night outlasts your intentions. Cash only, so plan accordingly.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Dive Bar · Best of Phoenix
2. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Lesbian Bar · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Lesbian Bar · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Lesbian Bar · Best of Phoenix

An old house in Tempe that may or may not be haunted, depending on how many drinks in you are. Casey Moore's is a seafood and oyster bar that's been around forever, and it draws the full cross-section of college town life, from freshmen to people who were freshmen here decades ago. The patio, the well-priced drinks, and the raw bar keep everyone coexisting peacefully, which is harder to pull off than it sounds.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Neighborhood Bar · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Neighborhood Bar · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Bar · Best of Phoenix

The taco truck parked out front sets the tone before you even get inside. Charlie's is an old-school gay bar and dance hall on Camelback with a big outdoor patio, bleacher seating, two bars, and a dance floor that earns its own reputation after midnight on weekends. The calendar runs from drag nights and karaoke to Latin and country two-stepping, so the crowd varies wildly depending on when you show up, which is most of the fun.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Gay Bar · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best After-Hours Dance Spot · Best of Phoenix
3. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

1. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. AZ Central Best Uptown Phoenix coffee shops for curling up with a book · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes
2. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

Karaoke spills out of this LGBTQ+ bar at Park Central before you even reach the door. Inside, Kobalt runs on the pleasant fiction that everyone already knows each other, with drag shows, RuPaul's watch parties, and trivia filling the calendar alongside the sing-alongs. Show tunes, '80s ballads, and early-aughts pop keep the room generous and loud. Cocktails hover around eleven dollars, which makes it easy to stay for one more song, then another.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Gay Bar · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Drag Shows · Best of Phoenix
3. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

1. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times Chicken Tecolota @ Requinto · The 10 best bites we tasted at Phoenix restaurants

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Iconic Speakeasy Experience

A seven-foot plaster rooster presides over the bar, and a miniature Eiffel Tower tops the roof, and somehow neither feels out of place. Nutowne Saloon is an old-school gay bar in east Phoenix that has been around forever, surviving a fire that gutted the place and still coming back kitschier than before. Pool tables, a Merlin fortune-telling machine, and a patio covered for the crowds round out a room that grandma's attic would recognize immediately.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Gay Bar Decor · Best of Phoenix
2. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

You reach this cocktail bar and pinball arcade by yanking open a fake freezer door inside Ziggy's Magic Pizza Shop, which is either the best or worst way to start a night depending on how you feel about commitment. Inside: a glowing dance floor, a disco ball, pinball machines, and a full bar. Post-show crowds spill in from the Van Buren next door, so on any given night the room holds goths, burners, and Disney adults in rough harmony.

1. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Hidden Bar · Best of Phoenix

1. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

A honky-tonk dive bar on the east side of Phoenix where the lineup might be line dancing one night and back-to-back rockabilly the next. The bar menu runs wings, burgers, and nachos, there's a daily food special, and happy hour runs weekday afternoons. Sports play on multiple screens for the crowd that isn't there for the boot-scootin'. An old-school institution that closed for a stretch and came back, which says something about how much the neighborhood wanted it back.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Bar Food · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Country Bar · Best of Phoenix
3. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner: Genuine Concepts · Outstanding Hospitality Group
2. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist: Genuine Concepts · Outstanding Hospitality Group
3. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

1. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

A hanging mobile about Phoenix's infamous trunk murderess sets the tone before you've even ordered a drink. Valley Bar is a basement dive, reached through an alley off Central Avenue that will make you question your life choices right up until you hit the stairs and descend into genuinely good energy. Cheap beers, cocktails named after Arizona politicians, skeeball, shuffleboard, and live DJs on weekends round out a room that has no interest in taking itself seriously.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Basement Bar · Best of Phoenix
2. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

Plastic dinosaurs lined up on the ledge, a letterboard menu that changes whenever it feels like it, and a taproom that still reads as someone's living room because it used to be one. This community-focused brewpub in Green Gables pours the Spellbinder hazy IPA alongside a rotating cast of fruit-forward beers, and food trucks regularly pull up out front to fill the gap. Small, friendly, and a little cluttered in the best way.

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner: Spellbinder · Favorite Local Craft Beer
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Brewery · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Brewery · Best of Phoenix

Yucca Tap Room is an old-school dive bar and live music venue where cheap drinks and a no-fuss atmosphere have kept generations of Tempe regulars coming back. The punk shows are a fixture, and moshers in Halloween costumes remain a perfectly normal Tuesday-in-October situation. Half the space now belongs to Electric Bat Arcade, a pinball room that on some nights draws a bigger crowd than the bar itself.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to See a Punk Show · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Place to See a Punk Show · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to See a Punk Show · Best of Phoenix

The restaurant's unofficial motto translates roughly to "I don't give a damn," which is a curious thing to post when your birria arrives in hand-pressed squid ink tortillas with miso consommé. Chilte is a modern Mexican restaurant and bar in a revamped motor hotel on Grand Avenue, and Food & Wine named the chef one of its Best New Chefs. The seasonal menu shifts often, and the team pulls in guest chefs regularly, so the room rewards repeat visits.

1. Food & Wine Best New Chefs · Lawrence "LT" Smith
2. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist · Emerging Restaurant of the Year
3. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants

Roosevelt Row gets a proper grown-up restaurant in Pretty Penny, where every table starts with a complimentary pour of bubbles and the kitchen sends out housemade pastas, bold proteins, and an octopus tostada that earned a spot on Phoenix Magazine's top dishes list. The forest-green room is sleek without being stiff, and the bar program holds its own, landing in the Spirited Awards' regional top ten for best new cocktail bar.

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist · Top Mixologist/Bartender · Brenon Stuart
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best New Restaurant · Best of Phoenix
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Fried chicken and Champagne share a menu at this retro-glam bowling lounge off Roosevelt Row, which tells you most of what you need to know about its vibe. A handful of lanes, a circular bar, pool tables, and DJs make it more of a night out that happens to involve bowling than the other way around. Sushi and nachos cover the snacking spread. Dress accordingly, because the decor is very much meant to be photographed.

1. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist · Outstanding Bar/Nightlife Experience
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Bougie Bowling · Best of Phoenix

A strip-mall address in Scottsdale is doing its best to throw you off, but step inside Course and it's a full tasting-menu restaurant, white-tablecloth intentions and all. The kitchen runs a rotating seasonal menu, five courses on weeknights and eight on weekends, with a James Beard semifinalist nomination for the chef and another for pastry. The Pinnacle Guide awarded it one Pin for 2026.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
2. USA Today Restaurants of the Year
3. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner · Exceptional Culinary Experience

Globe pendant lights, brass accents, and two misters-in-summer courtyards make this woman-owned taproom on Roosevelt Row feel like the anti-brewery brewery. The flagship pale ale is called Herstory, which tells you everything about the vibe. Rotating experimental brews sit alongside core taps, and if you get hungry, a QR code on the table summons food from nearby spots. Trivia nights and live music fill the calendar, and Phoenix New Times named it one of the city's top 100 bars.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Unusual Beer: Mango Lassi · Best of Phoenix
2. Imbibe Where to Drink in Phoenix

Lux Central is a coffee shop, bakery, and bar that can't commit to one job, and the schedule makes that a feature. Pastries hold down the morning, the bar wakes up soon after, and the egg plates and hashes drift into diner-leaning fare as the day goes on. Plenty of people arrive for a quick latte and are still at the table when the cocktails show up, laptops open, no one embarrassed.

1. Imbibe Where to Drink in Phoenix
2. AZ Central Best Uptown Phoenix coffee shops for meeting friends or making new ones · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes
3. Eater The 15 Best Brunches in Phoenix

The Kilt Lifter Scottish Ale has been filling pints here long enough that it's practically a local institution, and the Mission Revival warehouse it lives in only adds to the effect. Four Peaks is a full-scale brewpub with a cavernous brick interior, a sprawling patio, and a menu that covers wings and nachos but also green chile mac and cheese for anyone who needs more than bar food. Spring training crowds and ASU students pack the place, which tells you most of what you need to know about the vibe.

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Winner: The Joy Bus · Favorite Local Craft Beer
2. Eater The Best Bars in Phoenix

1. Eater The Best Bars in Phoenix

You get in through Crust Pizzeria next door or a utility door out back, which is exactly the kind of entrance a plush Scottsdale speakeasy deserves. Inside, the cocktail list runs from an 1870s Martinez and the hard-to-find Clover Club to moody modern signatures built around bourbon, amaro, and pistachio orgeat. It's part of a small family of animal-named bars, and the Goose is the one that makes you forget you're in a strip mall.

1. Eater The Best Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

Pinball machines and candlelight set the tone at this casual gay cocktail bar on 16th Street, where the vibe leans more neighborhood hangout than high-drama nightclub. Lounge seating, a patio, and daily drink specials keep regulars coming back through the week. The menu covers craft cocktails, bar snacks, and specialty shots, which is all you really need when the room is this relaxed.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Gay Bar · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

Dollar bills papering the walls floor to ceiling, Christmas lights above, and a stage that gets a rock band most nights of the week: Chopper John's is a dive bar that knows exactly what it is. The black-and-red room off Indian School Road draws regulars who look like they were designed to match the decor. Pool tables, a patio for smokers, and baseball on the TV fill in the gaps between sets.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Dive Bar · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Rock Bar · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

A checkerboard dancefloor, light-up floors downstairs, and a patio that sulks attractively outside, all packed into a small downtown nightclub that drew a line around the block on opening night. DJ sets and pop-up food nights keep the calendar full, but the periodic Dance Dance Revolution parties and lube wrestling events are what really set the tone. The crowd is genuinely mixed in the best way, and nobody seems to be here ironically.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best New Nightclub · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

Gold palm fronds hang over the bar like a permanent vacation has been declared, and the drinks menu at this Cuban cocktail bar treats rum the way a serious wine list treats Burgundy. The daiquiri and mojito get thoughtful treatment alongside wilder tropical builds. The same team runs Pigtails and Rough Rider, so the pedigree tracks. Pink tiles, cozy booths, and food to keep things grounded.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best New Bar · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

Vintage arcade cabinets run on Cobra-stamped tokens, which tells you everything about the vibe before you've touched a joystick. This cocktail bar and arcade in downtown Phoenix covers its walls in local murals, pours signature drinks with names like Garbage Pail Kids and Punch Out, and hosts Valley DJs on weekends. When the crowd hits comic-con density, an anime-themed overflow lounge a few doors down offers Japanese import games and cocktails served in fugu-shaped mugs.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Bar Makeover · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

Guinness signs and hand-drawn maps of Ireland cover the walls of this Irish pub and restaurant in the far western suburbs of Phoenix. Fish and chips, corned beef and cabbage, and a full Irish breakfast on weekends anchor the menu. Bartenders know regulars by name, and the event calendar stays busy with live music, karaoke, and trivia nights, which is a lot to offer a neighborhood that doesn't always get this kind of attention.

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Irish Pub · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

The floor doesn't fill until after midnight, which tells you everything about the kind of night Karamba is built for. It's a Latino gay nightclub where dancers in little more than underwear work elevated platforms while the DJs do the heavy lifting, threading reggaeton into club classics into top 40 without a seam. The pours are generous enough that an Uber home counts as planning ahead, not an afterthought. Phoenix New Times named it the best after-hours dance spot in town.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best After-Hours Dance Spot · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best After-Hours Dance Spot · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

The sour program leans into nostalgic flavors both real and invented, with a pastel blue Star Wars-inspired sipper sitting comfortably beside a margarita sour. This neighborhood craft brewery in northeast Phoenix rotates its taps aggressively, and the owner's laugh tends to reach you before he does. Food trucks cover the kitchen gap while a ramen bar next door remains perpetually forthcoming. A good room for people who treat tap lists the way others treat wine menus.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Take a Geek Who Loves Beer · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

A dark, sleek wine bar in Old Town Scottsdale pouring from Arizona's Willcox region, which Wine Enthusiast has been calling the next Napa with a straight face for years. Co-owner Pavle Milic also runs the beverage program at Charleen Badman's FnB, so the pedigree is real. Bar staff are genuinely gregarious about helping you navigate a glass or flight, while regulars who never need to ask fill the other stools.

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Tasting Room · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Piano Bar · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

A chalkboard of rotating cocktail specials and a basement bathed so completely in red light that no other color survives the trip down. This speakeasy-style cocktail bar is tucked beneath the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel, behind a mural and open only two nights a week, which is exactly the energy. Vintage velvet chairs and low tables give it the feel of a sitting room someone forgot to leave, and the drinks arrive in coupes and crystal-cut rocks glasses.

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Top Mixologist/Bartender · PJ Vader Baron
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Speakeasy · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

Cash only, dark inside, and on any given night you might have to squeeze past a metal band unloading gear in the parking lot just to get through the door. Palo Verde is a Tempe dive bar where construction workers in hi-vis vests share the rail with ASU newcomers and neighborhood lifers. Drinks are cheap and poured strong, and the bartender has your order memorized before you've taken your jacket off.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Dive Bar · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

A craft brewery taproom in north Scottsdale that solved the age-old standoff between beer nerds and sports fans by simply installing TVs everywhere. The brewmaster leans toward classic European styles, rotating Czech lagers, English milds, and an Oktoberfest marzen through the taps. The covered patio connects to a permanent BBQ food trailer, so there's no reason to leave at halftime. Phoenix New Times named it Best New Brewery of 2025.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best New Brewery · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

The 12 tap handles are mounted in a repurposed fire truck behind the bar, which tells you everything you need to know about the vibe. Roosters is a country bar that's been an East Valley institution forever, with a red-and-black checkered dance floor, pool tables, live music most nights, open mics, and karaoke. A second stage and beer tubs sit out on the smoking patio. Strangers introduce you to their friends before the first round is done.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Bar for Country Music · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix